Tonight, the updated Sherlock Holmes series begins its second season with A Scandal in Belgravia. Next week, it’s The Hounds of the Baskervilles, and Season 2 finishes up with The Reichenbach Fall. Some Sherlockians might object to bringing Sherlock into the 21st Century, but I find these programs great fun. PBS has been rebroadcasting Season One and Season One is available on DVD and Blu-ray. Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays the quirky Holmes, is also going to star in the next Star Trek movie.

Joss Whedon, director of The Avengers, pulls off a minor miracle in blending Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Thor into a fast-paced action movie. Those of you familiar with the Avengers from the Marvel comic books know that six more dysfunctional characters would be hard to imagine. Yet, Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. (played by Samuel L. Jackson) manages to bring them together to fight an invasion led by Thor’s evil brother, Loki. Great battle scenes! Manhattan gets trashed. And, as always, the door is open for a sequel. I enjoyed The Avengers, it’s a perfect summer movie! GRADE: A

Robert Sheckley was one of my favorite writers when I was a teenager. It seemed that every issue of Galaxy and If had a Sheckley story in it. I preferred Sheckley’s humorous stories, but he could also write gritty, hard-hitting fiction. This newly published New York Review of Books edition of 26 Sheckley stories has plenty of great stories in it. I hope this is the first of a series!
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
The Monsters
Seventh Victim
Shape
Specialist
Warm
Watchbird
The Accountant
Paradise II
All the Things You Are
Protection
The Native Problem
Pilgrimage to Earth
A Wind is Rising
Dawn Invader
Double Indemnity
Holdout
Language of Love
Morning After
The Red Slayer
The Store of the Worlds
Shall We Have a Little Talk?
Cordle to Onion to Carrot
The People Trap
Can You Feel Anything When I Do This?
Is That What People Do?
Beside Still Waters

South Pacific shows up in Buffalo at Shea’s Performing Arts Center this week. Diane and I have both seen South Pacific before, but we couldn’t resist this touring version. South Pacific has music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The play is based on James A. Michener’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific. South Pacific has some of my favorite Broadway songs: “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair”, “Some Enchanted Evening”, “Happy Talk”, “Younger than Springtime,” and “I’m in Love with a Wonderful Guy.”
Here’s a sample:

Nobel Prize Winner Paul Krugman says that improving the economy has an easy economic solution: stimulus. Drawing on data from the Great Depression and the 14 recessions we’ve had since, Krugman argues that Government spending is the key factor to improving the economy. Of course, the Forces of Darkness (aka, the Koch brothers, the Tea Party, the Republican Party, Grover Norquist, etc.) have spent the last 50 years demonizing Government and spreading the erroneous idea that Government can do nothing right. What’s holding back the U.S. economy is politics. John Maynard Keynes was right: in times of depression and recession when private capital is frozen, only Government spending can reinvigorate the economy. Diane and I have done our best in these troubled times to stimulate the economy, but that’s not enough. Krugman insists that until Government pitches in, the U.S. economy will continue to flounder. Read End This Depression Now! and you’ll be convinced Krugman is right! GRADE: A

Romancing the Stone (1984) features the hot Kathleen Turner and the then hunky Michael Douglas. Kathleen Turner plays a novelist who ends up in Columbia and finds herself in a treasure hunt with Michael Douglas. I loved this movie when I first saw it almost 30 years ago. It’s Indiana Jones-lite. But in my quest to replace all of my favorite DVDs with Blu-rays, who could pass up a $5.00 copy of Romancing the Stone in Blu-ray at Wal-Mart? The sequel, Jewel of the Nile sucks.

What are the elements of a bestselling novel? Professor and mystery writer James W. Hall shows how books excite an audience and become best sellers. Hall developed a Popular Literature course where he and his class explored a dozen best sellers to discover the key factors that resulted in the books selling millions of copies. If you’re interested in books and authors who climb to the top of the best sellers’ lists, Hit Lit has plenty of analysis and interesting facts to illustrate how the process works. Fascinating! For a more detailed review, click here. GRADE: A

Emily Blunt and Jason Segel star in this romantic comedy about a long-delayed wedding. Jason proposes to Emily, but event after event postpones their wedding. They move from San Francisco to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor where Emily gets a post-doc in psychology. Jason, a talented chef, finds himself reduced to making sandwiches in a local bistro. Plenty of predictable problems occur: job frustrations, romantic temptations, etc. And some unpredictable events pop up: Emily being shot with an arrow (or bolt, as Jason insists), Jason chasing a college professor who has ninja powers, etc. There are too many dull patches in this movie (Diane said she could have edited out 20 minutes of unnecessary or unfunny scenes). Too many people lose appendages. Too much use of the F-word. Yet, the on-screen chemistry between Emily Blunt and Jason Segel is compelling and believable. I wish The 5-Year Engagement turned out better. GRADE: B-

The Buffalo Bills chose corner back Stephon Gilmore (South Carolina) in the First Round. I love the pick! The Bills couldn’t stop anybody last year. Their defense ranked near the bottom of the League. With their Second Round pick, the Bills picked massive offensive lineman, Cordy Glenn (Georgia). Another great choice! Many draft gurus had Cordy Glenn going in the First Round on their mock drafts. In the Third Round, the Bills picked the best wide receiver left on the board: T. J. Graham (NC State). With these three picks, the Bills have address three big needs on their team. Today, the Bills have two picks in the Fourth Round, one Fifth Round pick, two Sixth Round picks, and two Seventh Round picks. Ten picks in all. Bills fans are hoping the 2012 Draft will provide the depth that was so lacking last season. How did your team do?

Once upon a time, the Library of America published canonical writers like Henry James and Edith Wharton. Then, a few years ago, the Library of America decided to venture into genre fiction by publishing H. P. Lovecraft and Philip K. Dick. Boffo sales! We readers of crime novels from the 1940s and 1950s know David Goodis was one of the noirish writers of that era. The Library of America has just published this omnibus edition of five of Goodis’ novels: Dark Passage, Nightfall, Moon in the Gutter, The Burglar, and Street of No Return. I really like the cover on this volume that reprints the original paperback covers. I hope the Library of America keeps this feature on their genre fiction collections. And I hope this is just the first volume of Goodis reprints from the Library of America.